Green reviews, news and interviews

The ecobutton – cool, clever and green

If you look around your house right now, how many appliances do you have which are currently sitting on standby? While it was thought that gadgets left switched off, but still on standby, used little energy, we now know that this is not true. As we have the ability to monitor our fuel consumption through gadgets such as the Owl, we are learning just how much electricity is being used even while we sleep, because of appliances being left on.

Annoyingly, many television manufacturers and other gadget providers have still not cottoned on to the fact that we are looking to save energy and cut costs. This means that even brand-new televisions still only have a stand-by option, and in order to make them more economical we have to switch them off at the power socket.

One of the worst offenders for using energy needlessly has to be the humble laptop or PC. More of us are working from home or spending our leisure time surfing, which means that office appliances are draining more of our electricity more or less constantly. It’s quicker and more convenient to keep your machine on standby when you pop away from it, even overnight, and most of us tend to simply shut the lid of a laptop or send our PC to sleep until we get back to working on them.

The last thing busy workers want to be doing is shutting down their monitor and PC every single time they pop away for a coffee, only to have to come back and re-boot it all and find the documents or sites you were working on. So, what’s the solution? I can tell you!

Cutting costs, cutting carbon

For under $30, you can now get your hands on a very funky gadget. The ecobutton™ has been designed to work with your PC or laptop to activate the most economical sleep mode available on your machine, whenever you need it to. This little carbon-reducing button has the ability to power down for you when you step away, only to bring the computer on in an instant as soon as you are ready to work again.

The ecobutton™ features a smart illuminator to remind you to press it before you leave your PC or laptop, so you never forget to power down before walking away. Saving energy and time, the little button is a genius of quiet, understated effectiveness. The savings you make through using the button are displays on the button’s screen, showing you exactly how much electricity you have saved (in terms of cost), and how much you have reduced your carbon footprint. Another addictive little gadget, the ecobutton™ will serve as a gentle reminder to you to do your bit for the environment even as you work.

There are currently about 30 billion computers in the world. Imagine the potential savings if we all invested a small amount, to make them more efficient? You can buy your own ecobutton™ by visiting their dedicated site: www.eco-button.com.